[deathanatos]

But it's still water, and it's still moving up and about of its own accord in the local air which is the point. That it isn't technically steam doesn't disprove the point the person you're responding to is trying to make…

The commenter's point isn't that the lead has technically been boiled, it's that, if we analogize to "steam" in a shower, I don't have to reach water's boiling point before I'm breathing in water. Does that translate to lead: i.e., even if I'm below lead's boiling point, could I be nonetheless breathing in lead vapor, or something like that? (I don't know the answer here, which would push me towards lead-free solder. I.e., I don't know if the precautions I'd take with lead would actually suffice.)

[at_a_remove]

That's the reason I was being persnickety and "science-y" about terms: analogies can lead you astray. You don't know the answer here, and so your options are: 1) do some experiments, 2) reason by science, not analogy.

I have some weightlifting plates. Pure iron. Can I forego iron in my diet and just ... sit next to them? Now, by analogy, sure. Practically? Probably not.

Here's one for you: what do you think happens if you drank a glass of pure liquid mercury?

Most people think you'd die on the spot. Wrong! That mercury hasn't sublimated into mercury vapor. Instead, it barrels through your alimentary canal like a shot and was used to treat constipation, of all things. It is poorly absorbed by digestion and just runs right through you.

Phase changes matter for these things.

[jpindar]

No, soldering doesn't send streams of liquid solder through the air. And if an occasional drip of solder does splash, it is so heavy, and has so much surface tension, that it doesn't go far and doesn't stay in the air like water droplets do.